No abstract

SummaryAn Arabidopsis thaliana gene encoding a homologue of the potato a-glucan, water dikinase GWD, previously known as R1, was identified by screening the Arabidopsis genome and named AtGWD3. The AtGWD3 cDNA was isolated, heterologously expressed and the protein was purified to apparent homogeneity to determine the enzymatic function. In contrast to the potato GWD protein, the AtGWD3 primarily catalysed phosphorylation at the C-3 position of the glucose unit of preferably pre-phosphorylated amylopectin substrate with long side chains. An Arabidopsis mutant, termed Atgwd3, with downregulated expression of the AtGWD3 gene was analysed. In Atgwd3 the amount of leaf starch was constantly higher than wild type during the diurnal cycle. Compared with wild-type leaf starch, the level of C-3 phosphorylation of the glucosyl moiety of starch in this mutant was reduced. Taken together, these data indicate that the C-3 linked phospho-ester in starch plays a so far unnoticed specific role in the degradation of transitory starch.

GWD (alpha-glucan,water dikinase) is the enzyme that catalyses the phosphorylation of starch by a dikinase-type reaction in which the beta-phosphate of ATP is transferred to either the C-6 or the C-3 position of the glycosyl residue of amylopectin. GWD shows similarity in both sequence and reaction mechanism to bacterial PPS (pyruvate,water dikinase) and PPDK (pyruvate,phosphate dikinase). Amino acid sequence alignments identified a conserved histidine residue located in the putative phosphohistidine domain of potato GWD. Site-directed mutagenesis of this histidine residue resulted in an inactive enzyme and loss of autophosphorylation. Native GWD is a homodimer and shows a strict requirement for the presence of alpha-1,6 branch points in its polyglucan substrate, and exhibits a sharp 20-fold increase in activity when the degree of polymerization is increased from 27.8 to 29.5. In spite of the high variability in the degree of starch phosphorylation, GWD proteins are ubiquitous in plants. The overall reaction mechanism of GWD is similar to that of PPS and PPDK, but the GWD family appears to have arisen after divergence of the plant kingdom. The nucleotide-binding domain of GWD exhibits a closer phylogenetic relationship to prokaryotic PPSs than to PPDKs.

The plasma membrane H+-ATPase is a proton pump belonging to the P-type ATPase superfamily and is important for nutrient acquisition in plants. The H+-ATPase is controlled by an autoinhibitory C-terminal regulatory domain and is activated by 14-3-3 proteins which bind to this part of the enzyme. Alanine-scanning mutagenesis through 87 consecutive amino acid residues was used to evaluate the role of the C-terminus in autoinhibition of the plasma membrane H+-ATPase AHA2 from Arabidopsis thaliana. Mutant enzymes were expressed in a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae with a defective endogenous H+-ATPase. The enzymes were characterized by their ability to promote growth in acidic conditions and to promote H+ extrusion from intact cells, both of which are measures of plasma membrane H+-ATPase activity, and were also characterized with respect to kinetic properties such as affinity for H+ and ATP. Residues that when altered lead to increased pump activity group together in two regions of the C-terminus. One region stretches from K863 to L885 and includes two residues (Q879 and R880) that are conserved between plant and fungal H+-ATPases. The other region, incorporating S904 to L919, is situated in an extension of the C-terminus unique to plant H+-ATPases. Alteration of residues in both regions led to increased binding of yeast 14-3-3 protein to the plasma membrane of transformed cells. Taken together, our data suggest that modification of residues in two regions of the C-terminal regulatory domain exposes a latent binding site for activatory 14-3-3 proteins.

SummaryThe plasma membrane H ϩ -ATPase in higher plants has been implicated in nutrient uptake, phloem loading, elongation growth and establishment of turgor. Although a C-terminal regulatory domain has been identified, little is known about the physiological factors involved in controlling the activity of the enzyme. To identify components which play a role in the regulation of the plant H ϩ -ATPase, a fusicoccin responsive yeast expressing Arabidopsis plasma membrane H ϩ -ATPase AHA2 was employed. By testing the fusicoccin binding activity of yeast membranes, the C-terminal regulatory domain of AHA2 was found to be part of a functional fusicoccin receptor, a component of which was the 14-3-3 protein. ATP hydrolytic activity of AHA2 expressed in yeast internal membranes was activated by all tested isoforms of the 14-3-3 protein of yeast and Arabidopsis, but only in the presence of fusicoccin, and activation was prevented by a phosphoserine peptide representing a known 14-3-3 protein binding motif in Raf-1. The results demonstrate that the 14-3-3 protein is an activator molecule of the H ϩ -ATPase and provides the first evidence of a protein involved in activation of plant plasma membrane H ϩ -ATPase.

Starch phosphorylation catalysed by the alpha-glucan, water dikinases (GWD) has profound effects on starch degradation in plants. The Arabidopsis thaliana genome encodes three isoforms of GWD, two of which are localized in the chloroplast and are involved in the degradation of transient starch. The third isoform, termed AtGWD2 (At4g24450), was heterologously expressed and purified and shown to have a substrate preference similar to potato GWD. Analyses of AtGWD2 null mutants did not reveal any differences in growth or starch and sugar levels, when compared to the wild type. Subcellular localization studies in Arabidopsis leaves and in vitro chloroplast import assays indicated that AtGWD2 was not targeted to the chloroplasts. The AtGWD2 promoter showed a highly restricted pattern of activity, both spatially and temporally. High activity was observed in the companion cells of the phloem, with expression appearing just before the onset of senescence. Taken together, these data indicate that, although AtGWD2 is capable of phosphorylating alpha-glucans in vitro, it is not directly involved in transient starch degradation.

A new approach to the study of starch biosynthesis was developed based on "very short pulse" labeling of leaf starch through photosynthetic fixation of 14 CO 2 . This allowed selective analysis of the structure of starch formed within a 30-s period. This time frame is shorter than the period required for the formation of a single crystalline amylopectin lamella and consequently permits a direct analysis of intermediary structures during granule formation. Analysis of chain length distribution showed that the most recently formed outer layer of the granules has a structure different from the mature starch. The outer layer is enriched in short chains that are 6 -11 glucose residues long. Side chains with 6 glucose residues are the shortest abundant chains formed, and they are formed exclusively by transfer from donor chains of 12 glucose residues or longer. The labeling pattern shows that chain transfer resulting in branching is a rapid and efficient process, and the preferential labeling of shorter chains in the intermediary granule bound glucan is suggested to be a direct consequence of efficient branching. Although similar, the short chain intermediary structure is not identical to phytoglycogen, which is an even more highly branched molecule with very few longer chains (more than 40 glucose residues). Pulse and chase labeling profiles for the dbe mutant showed that the final structure is more highly branched than the intermediary structures, which implies that branching of phytoglycogen occurs over a longer time period than branching of starch.Starch is the major carbohydrate reserve in many plant storage organs, including specialized roots, stems, and endosperms in which starch may accumulate to high levels and be stored over long time periods. The stored starch provides the energy reserve that allows plants to survive under unfavorable conditions and serves as the carbon source during germination. In contrast, transitory leaf starch is accumulated during the photoperiod and remobilized during the following night.

Transport across the plasma membrane is driven by an electrochemical gradient of H+ ions generated by the plasma membrane proton pump (H(+)-ATPase). Random mutants of Arabidopsis H(+)-ATPase AHA1 were isolated by phenotypic selection of growth of transformed yeast cells in the absence of endogenous yeast H(+)-ATPase (PMA1). A Trp-874-Leu substitution as well as a Trp-874 to Lys-935 deletion in the hydrophilic C-terminal domain of AHA1 conferred growth of yeast cells devoid of PMA1. A Trp-874-Phe substitution in AHA1 was produced gy site-directed mutagenesis. The modified enzymes hydrolyzed ATP at 200-500% of wild-type level, had a sixfold increase in affinity for ATP (from 1.2 to 0.2 mM; pH 7.0), and had the acidic pH optimum shifted towards neutral pH. AHA1 did not contribute significantly to H+ extrusion by transformed yeast cells. The different specifies of aha1, however, displayed marked differences in initial rates of net H+ extrusion and in their ability to sustain an electrochemical H+ gradient. These results provide evidence that Trp-874 plays an important role in auto-inhibition of the plant H(+)-ATPase and may be involved in controlling the degree of coupling between ATP hydrolysis and H+ pumping. Finally, these results demonstrate the usefulness of yeast as a generalized screening tool for isolating regulatory mutants of plant transporters.